Who says she is wise?

When I began posting daily to my blog it seemed natural that I should write a piece about women.  So each week I pick a particularly inspirational woman.  The title Wednesday’s Wise Woman seemed at the time a suitable alliteration.   

However, this was problematic at times as the women proved not always to be particularly wise.  Carolina Maria de  Jesus for instance managed to teach herself to read and write while living poverty in a favela in Sao Paulo; she rose to fame and moved to more comfortable surroundings; only to find her way back to homelessness  and to die with less than she had before.  This was not a wise woman in the eyes of those watching.  Nonetheless her story is one that I find awe inspiring and would feature her again as there is much to tell of her story.

And then, on whose wise-ness do we judge each other? And where does the information come from? My knowledge comes from mostly secondary sources that has already been cleansed and uncleansed and been given the ‘wise-ability-seal- of- approval by other information gatherers.

Then I usually play safe; looking for familiar names making sure that they were also dead; so they cannot answer back should I get the facts wrong.  

I am sure that I could go on for a very long time grabbing names from the internet ; but I have became a bit more selective when choosing.  I noticed that some of the women looked very wise, they had done much to improve the world not just for themselves.  They are fine role models and a credit to women and to the environment but also they received world wide notoriety and financial gain.   

There were some I picked who were controversial and radical and spent a lifetime fighting against laws, tradition and opinions to implement change, equality and justice.  In these cases those deciding on her wisdom or not might come from either side of the fence and she could be burned at the stack or raised to fame!

Meanwhile, back to my choices after their dead-ness.  What were their reasons to find fame or wisdom?  For instance I have a bee in my bonnet about ladies of the bountiful nature who want to convert every barbarian in the jungles of the world.  She, boosted by her faith; foolishly put her life and others at risk in the name of god. Nothing wise in that!

Then there is my interest in the suffragette movement.  No harm in that, of course lots of wise women from every walks of life;  standing on the stage of Christianity, Socialism Trades Union, Labour and Tory; fighting for the rights of women. However I just don’t want a label and forever banging the gong for women and their vote.  

I would like to look at other women who have struggled against adversity and not yet been noticed; dead or alive.  

My daughter lives in Brazil and has broadened my outlook and pointed out women and mostly mothers who  who have become active in political arena not for wealth or notoriety; simply to find their disappeared children they are not wise particularly just desperate to find closure and grieve for their dead children.   

But Brazil is not my home while I am becoming more familiar with its history and politics I cannot take a Brazilian stance on my blog.

I have even explored American/ African woman and slavery, women involved in the underground movement in the 2nd World War and nurses from other war torn places.  The sources will never be exhausted; but I cannot do the women or myself justice.  Who wants to read about the works of women that have already been milked to death by the media, regurgitated by me and then labeled wise!

So this where I am; in a tussle I want  to look wisely for women who have made a difference in situation that might not always be comfortable, pleasant or even correct.  Not for financial gain, fame or enlightenment but just to make difference.